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1 Listen, dear friends, to God's truth, bend your ears to what I tell you. 2 I'm chewing on the morsel of a proverb; I'll let you in on the sweet old truths, 3 Stories we heard from our fathers, counsel we learned at our mother's knee. 4 We're not keeping this to ourselves, we're passing it along to the next generation - God's fame and fortune, the marvelous things he has done. 12 He performed miracles in plain sight of their parents in Egypt, out on the fields of Zoan. 13 He split the Sea and they walked right through it; he piled the waters to the right and the left. 14 He led them by day with a cloud, led them all the night long with a fiery torch. 15 He split rocks in the wilderness, gave them all they could drink from underground springs; 16 He made creeks flow out from sheer rock, and water pour out like a river. (Psalm 78:1-4, 12-15 The Message Bible)
A tremendous and terrific Thursday be yours, dear Friend. May the joys of today set the stage for a wonderful weekend in which to serve and bless God. Please join me in lifting prayers of thanksgiving for a successful surgery of our niece, Isabella Saraí Ramirez, who underwent knee surgery. Bella is an athlete and was injured during this season and we pray this operation restore her for the senior year of high school. Please pray for The Rev. Richard Leggett, who is battling Covid. Richard is the pastor of First UMC of Bastrop and has been absent two Sundays due to the illness. He called me some weeks before and asked me to preach this coming Sunday in Bastrop. Prayers for this old man as well. Please pray for one another. Pray for those who have asked prayers of us, and pray for the needs of the world. Pray for peace.
My mother was a great storyteller. She shared stories from her life and stories she heard in the Catholic Church. She lost her mother when she was eleven and had to assume the household management of her family at that tender age. She had two younger brothers, an adopted sister, and three older sisters who were married. Her dad was my Papa Grande, my maternal grandfather. He led a serious life and the seriousness never left him. Mom told us stories of her life, her brothers and her sisters. My Dad was a man who loved to visit all family members and those visits served to share stories, to learn about each other, about those who were, those who had been, and prayers for those to come. What stories do you share? Who is your audience?
I became a storyteller when I landed in Houston at the age of 13. All five of us siblings shared a floor in a small Houston apartment and I was the only one not crying about having moved there. (Confession, I cried in privacy when I could find it.). My stories were mostly my re-visiting Kingsville and our family there. I re-told the stories I heard in the voices of those family members. I did the best I could in remembering those voices and trying to make them mine as I shared fond memories. I was chewing on the morsels of memories; sweet truths of a home we no longer owned. The stories told of a God Who moved us from a small town to a new world; our futures were in His hands and we wanted to bless Him as we followed, best as we could, towards God's dream for us.
The psalmist did this. Over and over, as he read and re-read his bible and the stories of the faith, he told and re-told the stories of his people. He truly, as this modern version says, chewed on morsels of proverbs, and let the world in on the sweet old truths, the stories of fathers and mothers, retold to sons and daughters, and re-told to grandsons and granddaughters - spread the news of a good and loving God and the power and might that God has to do good for His people. God's Greatest Hits are the stories of how God stepped in to help out His people. The more we tell these stories the more people will seek Him and all He offers. The believer shares the stories and thus shares the faith. We need to do the same. Whatever God has done in your life, He can do in the lives of others. We just need to share the stories.
PRAYER: Loving God, we thank You for Your praiseworthy deeds and wondrous acts in our lives and throughout history. Help us to be faithful stewards of these stories, passing them down to the next generation. May your faithfulness be a source of inspiration and strength for all who hear. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Tell your story to many.
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
